I won't lie to you, I'm a purist of originality so I despise remakes. Lost count at how many Hollywood has attempted and failed. However, once in a blue moon. one that actually makes it into his own and it was About Last Night. I'm not kidding.

In 1986, a classic date movie starred Rob Lowe and Demi Moore involving the Chicago cityline and an memorable baseball scenes (especially at Wrigley Field) It was based off David Mamet's play Sexual Perversity in Chicago. However, the move to Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium and putting different relationships from each gender keeps it grounded.

Danny (Michael Ealy) and Bernie (Kevin Hart) are single and partying it up at the Broadway Bar until Bernie shares a story about how crazy his latest date was with Joan (Regina Hall) until Danny finds out that Joan has a friend named Debbie (Joy Bryant) so once Joan and Bernie head off to the bedroom and not for the final time. Danny and Debbie hook up for a one-night stand and find themselves through the summer falling in love with each other deciding to try living with one another.

For once, it's good to see a date movie with smart and frank dialogue involving four likable characters. I will say this that in the '86 version, it was about twenty-somethings trying this out. Ealy is 40 and Bryant is 39 but dismiss it. Seriously, because they are charming, sweet and honest with each other from the beginning also showing off their acting chops when we see their shortcomings.

Kevin Hart and Regina Hall are alone worth the price of a ticket. I was busting a gut laughing every time these two got together, they are two passionately volatile people who work well together especially in the bedroom scenes. Credit to Director Steve Pink for letting these two high energy leads go at each other like lions mating. They also throughout all the screaming, yelling and cursing at one another. I find sweetness within how much Bernie and Joan care about each other.

However, they put a bit too much into a 100 minute running time. It gets a bit too overstuffed and cliches coming out by the minute, but that's really my only big gripe with this film.

Verdict: B+About Last Night doesn't fall into the vat of unnecessary remakes. Even with a change of venue, the charming cast delivers with great comic timing, smart dialogue and authenticity in relationships. This is kind of date movie that you want to take your boy/girlfriend to and walk out with a smile.

Let's not deny that so far, the Summer of 2014 has been terrific for cinema and after seeing Edge of Tomorrow. I can now say that I think Hollywood is starting to understand what filmgoers want to see. Something original. Edge of Tomorrow (although it's a lame title) simply blew my mind.

Tom Cruise has a career that spans more than 30 years where he's still a box office draw worldwide. Even at age 51, he still knows how to pack a versatile punch whether it's a comedy, a sci-fi drama or a balls-to-the -wall action film. So, writer Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher, The Usual Suspects) decides to put in all of the above and make it incredibly original and damn entertaining.

After an alien invasion has began as machines known as "Mimics" with the speed of a track runner laced with tentacles that has the mindset of a Terminator destroying every aspect of Europe. Cruise is Maj. Bill Cage, an Army officer who becomes the PR face of the military that sells these exoskeleton suits that's weapons have the power of a 50 cal. However Cage finds himself arrested by General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) and busted down to Private after refusing to go into a suicide mission against the Mimics. Suddenly, something strange happens. Cage is killed in the fight, but he wakes up to when he was demoted to Private again, he deals with Master Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton), introduced to his new team and forced into the battle with the Mimics. Then it starts again, again, and again.

Bringing an intelligent setup, this is where the film hits it's stride really having some fun with the timelines. At first, Cruise plays it as a coward who's never been in battle, then goes comically into conspiracy theorist rattling off the events to the unsuspecting people, then into badass mode ripping up Mimics one by one but then complexity sets into McQuarrie and Jez Butterworth's screenplay. Realizing that he keeps on dying that he has to find the loophole to ending this. What does Special Forces Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) have to do with it? Loved this film too much to bring up any major spoilers.

Cruise delivers his best performance since Collateral where even in a summer blockbuster, he gets to flex his acting muscles where as each genre is punched into the film, he stays the course and mixes in many personas to match them terrifically one by one. His scenes with Paxton and Gleeson were absolutely humorous, when you put character actors like these two having fun with their military characters to match with Cruise. When Blunt and him are together trying to solve the mystery of his time loop. We get some good wordplay and the reminder that every time Cage sees Vrataski, that he has a short amount of time to convince her that he can help with the mission. It doesn't hurt either that they have great chemistry together and their training scenes range from funny to inspiring.

Director Doug Liman has put the finishing touches on his apology letter for Jumper with Edge of Tomorrow. With the help of James Herbert's rapid fire editing, he is able to let the actors loose with the material but grounded when needed. He would make Steven Spielberg proud of the Mimics battle that is shot like a sci-fi version of the Normandy battle in Saving Private Ryan and as the actors move, so does the camera. Mixing in crane shots, shaky cam and playing it straight in the dramatic scenes mixing in close ups and mid-shots. Kudos to Christophe Beck's epic film score that creates a excellent balance in the correct genre shifts of the film and adding to Liman's breathless action choreography.

Verdict: A Edge of Tomorrow has the feels and budget of a summer blockbuster but what makes it first-rate is the originality within the story, a gamed cast having a good time with their characters, Cruise showing off his A-list charisma with versatility decked in an action packed two hours that delivers on it's promise. The motto is Live. Die. Repeat but for you, it should be Watch. Pay. Repeat.

Seth MacFarlane hit comedic gold with Ted, has hosted the Oscars, and came up with one of the funniest shows, Family Guy but just like that show, it's losing steam and we witness it in his latest, A Million Ways to Die in the West which fails to rise above the mess it's created.

MacFarlane is Albert Clark, a sheep farmer that chickens out of an showdown with a vicious gunfighter and loses his girlfriend, Louise (played blandly by Amanda Seyfield) in the process. He goes on a old-fashioned bender and finds himself whining about how bad it is in the West. The first time, it's hilarious. The next 15 times, it was like the town drunk was given a soapbox and he never stopped drinking.

Meanwhile, Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), the most vicious gunfighter in the West. The most vicious gunfighter in the...okay! Seth, we got it. He's having marital problems with his wife, Anna (Charlize Theron) with just one bullet to a old-timer. Anna runs off and moves into the town where Albert lives. A romance begins to spark after they meet Louise's new beau (with a mustache), Foy (Neil Patrick Harris) who wants to have a showdown for the bland hand, big eyed, hand of Louise.

MacFarlane wants this to Family Guy Goes West, but the problem with it is his brand of foul mouthed, pop culture style humor doesn't mix in with the wild, wild western culture. Obviously, he doesn't like the West. He drones on and on about how bad the West is. However, he delivers it as a cynic who doesn't want to embrace it but complain over, over, over (15 min later)...and over. See? It gets a bit annoying.

Theron and Neeson nail their parts nicely. Theron is a wisecracking, gun-toting beauty that knows how to take care of herself and even has nice chemistry with MacFarlane. Neeson nails down a gruff, shoot-first, talk-later gunfighter and owns the screen when he appears. As for Seyfield, she once again continues to prove that she's just a pretty face who can't generate any appeal or charisma towards any of her characters. I have seen her films and for an actress, she's a good singer. The supporting cast as a whole is wasted where you witness Sarah Silverman become...unfunny. I know it's a shock, it was a shock to me too.

We do get some beautiful cinematography and awe-inspiring shots of Arizona but when MacFarlane's humor continues to get in the way, it takes away the western feel. Like someone trying to become the Mel Brooks of this generation. That's the first thing you definitely don't do, try to be Mel Brooks. Nobody can be Mel Brooks. Don't get me wrong, in this foul mouthed, fart joked heavy comedy is sprinkles of a good western.

Even though I applaud Joel McNeely's score giving us the epic sound of how a western sounds and MacFarlane can still pull off a good dance number, but when you are contemplating walking out of the theater more than once, you know this is a disappointment (with a good musical number).

Verdict: D+

A Million Ways to Die in the West wants to be a cross between Tombstone and Blazing Saddles but it ends up being a convoluted mess that's satirical ideas are executed poorly while wasting a good cast. It's The Lone Ranger of 2014 and one of the worst of the year.

After the excellence of Matthew Vaughn's X-Men First Class and the underrated spinoff The Wolverine. I was counting down the days to X-Men: Days of Future Past, and brace yourself I'm about to use the first and last hipster acronym...OMG. Not only is this one of the best of the year, but it has the complexity that made Inception memorable and for a superhero film to follow it is...ballsy.

Opening with an epic battle where most of the X-Men are gone (Thanks, Brett Ratner) and the Sentinels have upgraded to mutant killers battling Storm (Halle Berry), Colossus (Daniel Cudmore, Bishop (Omar Sy), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, The Following), Blink, and Sunspot but then the return of Charles Xavier/Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, thank you), and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen) come up with a plan that will change EVERYTHING. Kitty taps into Wolverine's sub-conscious to time warp back to 1973 and convince the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy, YES) to stop the assassination for Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones) done by Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) Now, GOT fans. I will give you a moment to freak out. Ok! Moment is over.

Wolverine goes to a abandoned mansion that is ran by caretaker Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) to find a messed up Xavier where because of everything that happened in First Class put him in a deep depression and keeping himself from using his telepathic powers is injections that keep him walking but they find out the scene stealer of the year, Quicksilver (Evan Peters, American Horror Story) has to break out Magneto (Michael Fassbender, cue the chorus). I'm going to stop there because you must see this. I mean right after you're finishing reading this, get in the car and head to the cinema.

Of course, Jackman crushes it as Wolverine. Seriously, it's like that suit that you love to wear and just feel amazing in. Showing versatile charisma through his toughness, we still witness his fear come back from X2 again. He's a major and his last name starts with an S. You feel for Logan the whole time then when the claws come out, you just want to get up and applaud. Once again, the relationship between Erik and Charles is in-depth, terrifically witty especially when the chessboard comes out or when they match each other's monologues like it's Shakespearean. Fassbender/McKellen and McAvoy/Stewart just own the screen and always been my favorite part of the story arc. Toughest challenge was being conflicted in character but Lawrence knows how to do it and kick a lot of ass at the same time. When Magneto talks with Mystique, it's really convincing and since Never Back Down, Peters knows how to bring it to any project. Also, the end is chock full of great cameos, which made me alone silently clap.

Director Bryan Singer is just the man to do X-Men films. He's really involved with Simon Kinberg's screenplay and Matthew Vaughn had something to do with the story. No wonder, ha-ha. Singer puts together some terrific action sequences, uses the handheld and rotary cameras to excellence especially during Quicksilver's moment. He knows how to mix story, action, and character development with this franchise and keeping John Ottman's score from the beginning credits intact just clearly makes look forward to the next chapter. I refuse to the let out the post-credits secret, just go see it for yourself and then know that Singer will return.

Verdict: A

X-Men: Days of Future Past delivers on every aspect of it's promise. Bringing back Bryan Singer to get the franchise back on track and blowing your mind with the complex story, solid performances and the action sequences that alone will make your jaw drop, put the cherry on top of an superhero sundae that tastes as good as it looks. See it for yourself and prep for 2016

Films like The Rookie, Hoosiers, Remember the Titans and many others succeed because of the subject and how it's portrayed. Let's make room for Million Dollar Arm.

Jon Hamm (Mad Men) sheds his Don Draper persona bringing complexity to JB Bernstein, a real life Jerry Maguire type of sports agent that's had clientele like Barry Sanders and Curtis Martin but they're all retired as his associate, Aash (Aasif Mandvi) reminds him. After a pitch to Popo (Bengals MLB Rey Maualuga), the NFL's sack leader goes awry. Bernstein about to hit an financial crisis until he starts to watch Aash's favorite sport, Cricket. A pastime in India that has the same type of baseball mechanics . Million Dollar Arm is created and he's given a year to bring two potential pitching talents from the financial backing of a Chinese organization. Grab your passports, we're heading to India!

Two underdog stories come together. One that we already witness and another becoming simplistic. To accomplish an impossible dream, somebody has to attempt it. The only two to make it is Dinesh (Madhur Mittel), an tall but quiet young man with an arm that could rival Royals ace James Shields and Rinku (Suraj Sharma) who before he delivers his fastball positions himself as an flamingo and lets it fly. However, they are raw and thanks to Bernstein's friend, USC pitching coach Tom House (the reliable Bill Paxton) they now have a chance to make a Major League team.

Tom McCarthy's screenplay follows the "Based on a true story" playbook from the players introducing each other, adjusting to new surroundings, failure and of course, the epic conclusion. What makes it work is humanizing the characters and even a realistic love story that doesn't make me nauseous. Director Craig Gillespie craft awe-inspiring shots as we witness the journey across India from the low income, cramped downtown to the heated landscape that even at nightfall it still remains hot with the characters sweating it out mixing in modern technology especially with JB and his friend, Brenda (Lake Bell) when he brings back a piece of the Taj Mahal where size isn't an issue.

Hamm's versatility is proven with JB's ego intacted, showing when it's bruised and at rock bottom how humility can triumph. Good to see, Bell showing realism in her likable, honest character that knows how to keep JB in his place. Mittel and Sharma are terrific, not only when they are having conversations in their native tongue but when they are struggling to understand English, they bring emotion and charisma to their characters. However, it’s Bollywood star Pitobash who steals the show with his eagerness to learn and doing whatever it takes to achieve his own dream of becoming a pitching coach. Great supportive work by Mandvi and Alan Arkin as retired MLB scout Ray Poitevint bringing deadpan humor and a grounded presence.

Verdict: A

Million Dollar Arm humanizes its story and characters giving sports fans something to cheer about even though it’s telegraphed from the first pitch. With it’s Indian-inspired soundtrack and gamed cast that seals the complete game shutout.